For Carla Bozulich, singer and primary songwriter for L.A.'s cow-punksters
the
Geraldine Fibbers, the increased gender equity is actually a non-event.
"I don't
think there's a chick explosion," says a raspy-voiced Bozulich. "I
think
what's going on is that it wasn't fashionable for women to play rock &
roll.
You know it's not lady-like."

Ah, but not only has it become fashionable, it's become profitable and
newsworthy.
The Lillith Fair is topping every "What's hot" list, and Jewel, one
of
the tour draws, even made the cover of Time magazine recently.

For songwriters and guitar players, it's a good time to have two X
chromosomes.
But Bozulich, whose band has three non-females and is definitely not part of
the
tour, remains nonplused by the Lillith hype. "I've never heard any of
those
bands," she says.

What? What about the beloved cover girl? C'mon, Jewel and the Gang? She's
huge.

"She's pretty I guess," musters Bouzulich. "I happen to
know [who
she is], because a friend knows her. He lives in Alaska. Other than that, I'm
sure
I wouldn't even know who she was. I heard that she knows how to yodel,
though. That's
cool." After a long pause, she adds, "I saw her on the television.
She
was, like, rolling around."

Now that's the kind of talent that sells albums. But it takes more
than
talent to sell -- or rather, it takes something else besides talent to
sell.

Bozulich explains: "We still have a long way to go, because right now
the
only really acceptable woman in music is a woman that, at the end of the day,
isn't
going to offend anybody. Like Alanis Morissette has some words that can be
construed
as pretty `sassy' and `racy,' but everybody knows it was a gimmick. Whereas
if you
hear the Lunachicks or Courtney Love saying something like that, you know
that they
fucking mean it and they're gonna rip your motherfucking head off if you piss
'em
off."